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A D V I S O R Y
97.41
******************************************************************************
Topic: INN News Server Vulnerabilities
Source: CIAC
Creation Date: July 22, 1997
Last Updated:--
To aid in the wide distribution of essential security information, FedCIRC is
forwarding the following information from CIAC bulletin H-85. FedCIRC urges
you to act on this information as soon as possible.
If you have any questions, please contact FedCIRC:
Telephone: +1 888 282 0870
Email: fedcirc@fedcirc.gov
=======================FORWARDED TEXT STARTS HERE============================
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[ For Public Release ]
__________________________________________________________
The U.S. Department of Energy
Computer Incident Advisory Capability
___ __ __ _ ___
/ | /_\ /
\___ __|__ / \ \___
__________________________________________________________
INFORMATION BULLETIN
INN News Server Vulnerabilities
July 22, 1997 20:00 GMT Number H-85
______________________________________________________________________________
PROBLEM: A number of vulnerabilities have been identified in the INN
News Server.
PLATFORM: All platforms running of INN prior to version 1.6.
DAMAGE: May allow remote individuals to obtain access to vulnerable
systems. However, post access is required to exploit these
vulnerabilities.
SOLUTION: Upgrade to INN version 1.6 immediately.
______________________________________________________________________________
VULNERABILITY Exploit details involving this vulnerability have been made
ASSESSMENT: publicly available.
______________________________________________________________________________
[ Start Secure Networks Inc. Advisory ]
Secure Networks Inc.
Security Advisory
July 21, 1997
INN news server vulnerabilities
This advisory addresses a number of vulnerabilities present in all versions of
INN prior to version 1.6.
Problem Description:
A number of vulnerabilities exist in all versions of INN prior to version 1.6
which allow remote individuals to obtain access to vulnerable systems. Post
access is required to exploit these vulnerabilities. However, due to the
method with which news is propagated, once a single server has been broken
into, all of its peers can be accessed.
Technical Details:
A number of string copies within the INN news server fail to check the size of
data they are copying. This results in buffer overflows in several locations,
allowing individuals to execute commands remotely, including spawning a shell
on the NNTP port.
An example of this situation is in the processing of the "From: " line by the
nnrpd process. In the ARTpost function in post.c, the From: line is copied
into a buffer on the stack without performing bounds checking:
STRING
ARTpost(article, idbuff)
...
char buff[NNTP_STRLEN + 2], frombuf[SMBUF];
...
strcpy(frombuf, HDR(_from));
...
By crafting appropriate arguments in the From: header of the message, an
attacker can cause nnrpd to overwrite its stack, overwrite the function return
pointer on the stack, and thus execute arbitrary binary code.
Vulnerable Operating Systems and Software
All versions of INN prior to version 1.6 are vulnerable. To determine which
version of INN you are running, issue the following command on your news
server:
% telnet localhost 119
Your NNTP server version string will be displayed. A typical output from a
vulnerable NNTP server would read:
Trying 127.0.0.1...
Connected to localhost.
Escape character is '^]'.
200 freebsd.secnet.com InterNetNews NNRP server INN 1.5.1 17-Dec-1996 ready
A line reading:
telnet: Unable to connect to remote host: Connection refused
means that you are not running an NNTP server.
Fix Information
INN version 1.6 has been made availible at ftp://ftp.isc.org/isc/inn. A fix
will not be made availible for prior releases and it is suggested that all
users running INN upgrade to version 1.6 immediately.
Please note that INN version 1.6 is currently in beta testing stages,
therefore new versions may appear at this location in the future.
Additional Information
Secure Networks Inc. wishes to thanks James Brister for his
assistance in this advisory and a resolution to these problems.
You can contact Secure Networks Inc. at using the following
PGP key:
Type Bits/KeyID Date User ID
pub 1024/9E55000D 1997/01/13 Secure Networks Inc.
Secure Networks
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You can find past Secure Networks advisories at
http://www.secnet.com/advisories or at ftp://ftp.secnet.com/pub/advisories
You can browse our web site at http://www.secnet.com
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Copyright Notice
The contents of this advisory are Copyright (C) 1997 Secure Networks Inc, and
may be distributed freely provided that no fee is charged for distribution,
and that proper credit is given.
[ End Secure Networks Inc. Advisory ]
CIAC wishes to acknowledge the contributions of Secure Networks Inc. for the
information contained in this bulletin.
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========================FORWARDED TEXT ENDS HERE=============================
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has
established a Federal Computer Incident response Capability (FedCIRC)
to assist federal civilians agencies in their incident handling
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U.S. Department of Defense.
CIAC, the Computer Incident Advisory Capability, is the computer
security incident response team for the U.S. Department of Energy
(DOE) and the emergency backup response team for the National
Institutes of Health (NIH). CIAC is located at the Lawrence Livermore
National Laboratory in Livermore, California. CIAC is also a founding
member of FIRST, the Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams, a
global organization established to foster cooperation and coordination
among computer security teams worldwide.
This document was prepared as an account of work sponsored by an
agency of the United States Government. Neither the United States
Government nor the University of California nor any of their
employees, makes any warranty, express or implied, or assumes any
legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or
usefulness of any information, apparatus, product, or process
disclosed, or represents that its use would not infringe privately
owned rights. Reference herein to any specific commercial products,
process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or
otherwise, does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement,
recommendation or favoring by the United States Government or the
University of California. The views and opinions of authors expressed
herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of the United States
Government or the University of California, and shall not be used for
advertising or product endorsement purposes.